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I'm Not There | 
 enlarge | Artist: Original Soundtrack
Label: Sony
Category: Music
List Price: $19.98
Buy New: $10.98
You Save: $9.00 (45%)
New (49) Used (18) from $7.89
Rating:  46 reviews
Sales Rank: 1105
Format: Soundtrack
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 2
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 5.5 x 4.9 x 0.4
MPN: 712038
UPC: 886971203820
EAN: 0886971203820
ASIN: B000VS6P9Q
Release Date: October 30, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand new. Shipped from the UK by Airmail direct to 5 airports in the United States. Delivery takes approximately 5 working days from posting - we're frequently faster than a lot of US based sellers.
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| Tracks:
Disc 1
| • | All Along the Watchtower - Eddie Vedder & The Million Dollar Bashers | | • | I'm Not There - Sonic Youth | | • | Goin' To Acapulco - Jim James & Calexico | | • | Tombstone Blues - Richie Havens | | • | Ballad Of a Thin Man - Stephen Malkmus & The Million Dollar Bashers | | • | Stuck Inside Of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again - Cat Power | | • | Pressing On - John Doe | | • | Fourth Time Around - Yo La Tengo | | • | Dark Eyes - Iron & Wine & Calexico | | • | Highway 61 Revisited - Karon O & the Million Dollar Bashers | | • | One More Cup Of Coffee - Roger McGuinn & Calexico | | • | The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll - Mason Jennings | | • | Billy 1 - Los Lobos | | • | Simple Twist Of Fate - Jeff Tweedy | | • | Man In the Long Black Coat - Mark Lanegan | | • | Senor (Tales Of Yankee Power) - Willie Nelson & Calexico |
Disc 2
| • | As I Went Out One Morning - Mira Billotte | | • | Can't Leave Her Behind - Stephen Malkmus & The Million Dollar Bashers | | • | Ring Them Bells - Sufjan Stevens | | • | Just Like a Woman - Charlotte Gainsbourg & Calexico | | • | Medley: Mama, You've Been On My Mind/A Fraction Of Last Thoughts On Woody Guthrie - Jack Johnson | | • | I Wanna Be Your Lover - Yo La Tengo | | • | You Ain't Goin' Nowhere - Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova | | • | Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window? - The Hold Steady | | • | Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues - Ramblin' Jack Elliott | | • | The Wicked Messenger - The Black Keys | | • | Cold Irons Bound - Tom Verlaine & the Millions Dollar Bashers | | • | The Times They Are a Changin' - Mason Jennings | | • | Maggie's Farm - Stephen Malkmus & The Million Dollar Bashers | | • | When the Ship Comes In - Marcus Carl Franklin | | • | Moonshiner - Bob Forrest | | • | I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine - John Doe | | • | Knockin' On Heaven's Door - Antony & The Johnsons | | • | I'm Not There - Bob Dylan with The Band |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Many people have covered Bob Dylan's songs over the years, but few quite like this. On the double-disc soundtrack that accompanies Todd Haynes' extremely confounding biopic of the already plenty confounding folk icon, we get the likes of Sonic Youth, Cat Power, Yo La Tengo, the Hold Steady, and Antony & The Johnsons doing their best Dylan impressions and often failing gloriously. Former Pavement frontman Stephen Malkmus does a particularly fine job oozing his way through "Ballad of a Thin Man," while Wilco's Jeff Tweedy draws the moody beauty out of "Simple Twist of Fate," and Sufjan Stevens lends his typically baroque touch to "Ring Them Bells." Special credit has to go to the Million Dollar Bashers, the unofficial house band that includes Steve Shelley on drums, John Medeski on piano, and Tom Verlaine on guitar, along with other notable musicians. The generous track list and dynamic set of contributors promises that this album will provide plenty of awe long after the film itself has been forgotten. --Aidin Vaziri
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| Customer Reviews: Read 41 more reviews...
 Best Bob Dylan covers comp that I've heard November 15, 2007
25 out of 28 found this review helpful
There are a few multi-artist Dylan comps on the market, notably A Nod to Bob: An Artists' Tribute to Bob Dylan on His Sixtieth Birthday and the decent 30th anniversary concert soundtrack, the latter recorded long before his late 90's artistic revival when his new recordings again became as indispensable as his 60's and 70's output. Then there's compilations by individual artists like the Byrds, the Hollies, Richie Havens, Joan Baez, the Dead, and recently Brian Ferry, which aren't always spectacular either. Joan Baez, in my mind, is the greatest interpreter of Dylan's work; she can make each song her own like no one else.
Baez doesn't appear on this album, and neither do the remaining members of the Band. Perhaps they've developed and have been developed to such an extent by Dylan that an interpretation by either would be almost worthless. It's far more interesting to see an artist with an entirely different style, like Sonic Youth, Steve Malkmus or Cat Power, come along and modernize an old Dylan song.
Cat Power covered Dylan on her first Cover's Album, but her version of 'Stuck Inside a Mobile..' is not only recognizable, but up-tempo and very non-Cat-Power-like (almost happy). Former Pavement front-man Steve Malkmus has three songs on the album, as do Calexico. Both sets of contributions are outstanding; Steve Malkmus channels Dylan's vocals without leaving his own Lou Reed-influenced delivery far behind and Calexico may be an ideal backing band for Dylan himself if he didn't work so much in country and rockabilly; instead they play behind Willie Nelson, Roger McGuinn, Iron & Wine, and Jim James (of My Morning Jacket). Sonic Youth's cover of the title track, an obscure song, presumably off the basement tapes, with the original included at the very end of the second disc, sets the tone of the album along with a pretty good Eddie Vedder take of (the Jimi Hendrix interpretation of) All Along the Watchtower.
Other surprises include Yo La Tengo's profoundly gorgeous take of the early gem, Fourth Time Around, the Hold Steady's cover (not that great, but entertaining) of the early B-side "Can You Please Crawl Out My Window?", Jeff Tweedy's passionate delivery on Simple Twist of Fate, and perhaps the most profoundly moving cover on the album was done by an actor in the movie, a young african-american kid named Marcus Carl Franklin, one of the several actors who portray Dylan.
There aren't any big disappointments. Tom Verlaine's (of Television) cover of Cold Irons Bound comes to mind as one that could have been reworked a little so that it wouldn't drag as much. I skipped past Jack Johnson on my last couple listens, so I can't say much about that. Antony (of Antony & the Johnson's) sing Knockin on Heaven's Door just as you'd expect, but without adding much to note.
After all that, there's still a lot of artist contributions to comment on, but the nicest thing about the collection is that it doesn't sound like a bunch of disparate recordings patched together on one album. The arbitrary differences in production on most movie soundtracks and collections can cause them to fall apart if not well-sequenced. These songs all sound like they were recorded in the same studio under the same conditions, and the result is largely a sense of cohesion and purpose that's lacking on most tribute albums (even including Dylan's own tribute to Jimmy Rogers).
So, if you're going to get one collection of Dylan covers, this would be it. Now I can't wait to see the movie...
My Favorite Record of the Fall/Winter December 10, 2007
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
I just looked over some of the reviews for this album, and I can't believe how many old hippies have posted on here about how "only Bob can do Bob" (one old-timer even insisted that the list of great artists to cover him begins with the horrible, uninspired noodlings of the Grateful Dead!). These songs are reinterpretations of great songs, and yes, many of them are quite different than the originals. One reviewer suggested that these versions are "too modern," which says a great deal about that person's closed-mindedness when it comes to music produced after the 1960s. Most of the other negative reviews are clearly unfamiliar with the bands on this album (most of whom are pretty popular among music fans, by the way). I don't know why anyone would want these songs to sound just like Dylan, or why anyone would say he'd rather hear Dylan do them when all he'd have to do is pop a Dylan album in.
This is an excellent soundtrack full of excellent versions of excellent songs. It's really interesting, too: halfway through my first listen to Ramblin' Jack Elliott's version of "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues," I was about to dismiss it as a cheap Dylan imitation, only to realize that hey, early, acoustic Dylan is really a cheap Ramblin' Jack impression, as he's the first to admit, so it's really almost like hearing 1963-era Dylan covering 1965-era Dylan, if you catch my drift, which is really awesome. Other highlights include Sonic Youth doing a great job with the title song; Jim James and Calexico absolutely killing "Going to Acapulco"; Malkmus's unbelievable "Ballad of a Thin Man, in which his slacker-drawl somehow turns the song into something that I can't help dancing to; Yo La Tengo's "Fourth Time Around" with Georgia on vocals; Malkmus again on "Maggie's Farm"; Mason Jennings's versions of the folkie stuff; and the excellent backing by Calexico and the supergroup Million Dollar Bashers. Even Jack Johnson, whom I normally find too vanilla, does a really good job with "Mama, You've Been on My Mind." Only Sufjan Stevens stinks up the joint, doing a limp-wristed, Lawrence Welk-ified version of "Ring Them Bells" that doesn't fit in at all with the rest of the record (but then again, in my opinion Stevens ruins everything he touches).
This is exactly the right kind of soundtrack for this movie: it's smart, artistic, and challenging, and the kind of people who want to see their hero preserved in a time capsule like some sort of psychedelic Vladimir Lenin will undoubtedly be frightened out of their tie-dye. Plus, the vinyl version is four LPs, which is pretty cool.
I'm Not Displeased November 13, 2007
16 out of 20 found this review helpful
It's rare that a Dylan cover is better then the real Dylan. That's the case here; none of the songs are better then the orignal.
I would buy the album for one reason: Dylan singing "I'm Not There." It's a mystery why it's taken so long for this song to make it on a record! I would pay 20 bucks for this song alone. It's that good. It's classic Dylan, and it now ranks in my Top 20 of best Dylan songs.
Dylan's Second Oscar? November 4, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
It's true. Nobody does Dylan like Dylan. I have listened to Dylan so much, both studio, live and bootleg, and I know every song, every arrangement and every nuance due to the change in musicians over the years. So...it's good to get a fresh take on his songs. There is some amazing work on this collection including Roger McGuinn on One More Cup of Coffee and an amazing Senor by Willie Nelson. It's all good.
And I for one think Dylan should qualify for an Oscar for I'm Not There. After all, it's never appeared on an official release. Does it qualify as a newly written song for a film? How many artists are there with this kind of stuff in the can from 40 years ago? He is the man.
Museum Pieces v. the Living Word December 18, 2007
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
This is a wonderful collection of new takes on Bob Dylan songs. Although I am of a certain age that would know most (but not the very earliest) of the original Dylan songs in their original contexts, I do not worship the canon nor believe "The Times They Are a Changin' " was inscribed on stone tablets. "Blood on the Tracks" is my favorite album of his, so that should give you some idea of where I'm coming from.
But the comments here bring up an interesting dichotomy that resembles the classicist/romantic split that often comes up when performed art is discussed. The classicists tend toward the "Dylan does Dylan best," or even "only Dylan can do Dylan correctly." The romantic would throw the doors open to anyone performing a Dylan work in any manner he or she wishes. Of course, most people fall somewhere in the middle. Does anyone not appreciate The Byrds' version of "Mr. Tambourine Man?"
This isn't just a technical exercise, but rather has practical implications. Classical music pieces have become something akin to (pre-Modern) museum pieces. The vast majority of the classical music audience wants to hear Beethoven's 9th Symphony performed "correctly." Granted, conductors and musicians interpret the classics during performances, but within a narrow range. Of course, there are exceptions, such as the bright young violinist Carla Kihlstedt, who is building an amazing repertoire across several musical genres.
Do we want Bob Dylan's work to always be performed "correctly?" In 200 years (yes, I think his work will still be performed then and later) will we want to dress up to hear Dylan performed correctly in a concert hall by a performer in period costumes?
There will be a place for this type of performance, but keeping the songs fresh is mandatory. Without reinterpretations from contemporary performers, any music gradually becomes relevant only as history. When songs become museum pieces they lose their vitality and wither away, eventually known only to connoisseurs and members of the academy.
People may not like all of the interpretations here, but none of the performances sounds like it was "phoned in." Most of the artists here have probably lived with these songs during their careers and respect them greatly. The group of musicians making up "the house band" also provide a coherence that is lacking in many multi-artist compilations.
All-in-all, an outstanding collection, as long as you don't expect a completely deferential approach to the material.
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